LOS ANGELES -- As long as Keith Richards doesn't fall out of more trees, he will have a cameo in a Pirates Of The Caribbean movie.

But you won't see the Rolling Stones guitarist in Dead Man's Chest when it opens July 7.

"We're saving Keith," says director Gore Verbinski.

"You're talking to a couple of people who are a little befuddled by the Keith Richards phenomenon -- some would say obsession," co-writer Terry Rossio says of the fuss over rumours that Richards would play Jack Sparrow's father.

Rossio and co-writer Ted Elliott are charged with figuring out what Richards will do and say in his mystery role, which was inspired by a suggestion from Johnny Depp, who plays Sparrow.

Richards has not even shot any footage yet. "We've worked out some dates," says Verbinski, "and, as long as he doesn't fall out of more trees, we should be fine, as long as his health continues."

The outdoor action scenes for the third Pirates movie have already been shot, at the same time last year as the Dead Man's Chest action scenes were done in the Caribbean.

The interior studio shoot for Pirates 3 will be filmed in Hollywood for nine weeks starting in August. That is when Richards is set to do his role.

But he may not actually play Sparrow's dad. The filmmakers are being coy. So you have to wait until summer of 2007 to have the Richards mystery fully revealed.